The Need for Effective Environmental Education

Children are the Future Generation and their engagement in environmental conservation is an absolute must. Education is the key to fostering this engagement and hence, all efforts must be made in this regard. One of the main reasons for the current state of environmental degradation is the general apathy of civil society and the only way to address this issue is through intrinsic involvement of all stakeholders, in particular, children, since it is their future that is at stake.

Involvement of children in environmental conservation initiatives will also ensure that the movement becomes “bottom-up” rather than something that is mandated by legislation — this “bottom-up” approach has always been seen to be more effective in terms of implementation.

The Need for Effective Environmental Education

In order to be effective, environmental education needs to be both formally and informally imparted. Otherwise, it ceases to be attractive and loses its effect. It becomes just another textbook one has to read and answer questions on.

Children are inherently creative and the environmental education curriculum must try to build on this creativity. Rather than prescribing solutions, it must seek to obtain the answers from the children. After all, it is their future that is being decided upon.

Once this fundamental truth is understood, children will come forward with their views and actions to mitigate the environmental challenges. To be effective, environmental education needs to be imparted outside the four walls of the classroom. However, the weather in the Middle East, for most part of the year, is hardly conducive to outdoor activities and this should to be taken into account.

Green Hope – A Shining Example

My youth organisation, Green Hope, engages and educates young people through our “Environment Academies” which are tailor-made workshops on environmental issues. Till date, we have interacted with several hundred school and university students following all curriculum — our attendees are from all nationalities including native students.

A beach cleanup campaign by Green Hope

I have found them to be immensely concerned and motivated on environmental issues. Being from the region, they also have a lot of traditional knowledge about adapting to the natural environment which is a learning for those who have recently moved here.

Kehkashan Basu

Kehkashan Basu is 16 year old environmental and social activist from the United Arab Emirates whose sole objective is to involve and mobilize kids and youth in the movement for a sustainable and green future. She recently won the International Children's Peace Prize. She was the youngest international delegate at Rio+20 held in Rio de Janeiro last year where her work on stopping land degradation won her a global award from UN Convention to Combat Desertification. She was chosen by UN Conference on Sustainable Development Major Group for Children and Youth (UNCSD MGCY) to be the voice of the children and youth at several forums and reached out to the children of Rio’s slums to integrate them in the march towards sustainability.

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